myfrenchkitchen

“Dear Mom

Thank you for your letter and the parcel with all the delicious goodies….

…I invited some friends over this past weekend for lunch and I made this little salad for a starter. It reminded me of home and early summers in your garden. Everybody loved the combination of crab with kiwi and I got so many compliments, I almost felt like a renowned chef! It is light which had everybody enjoying their chocolate dessert with full gusto! I am amazed at how many men are keeping an eye on their weight! I am sure you and Dad will love it too….

With much love from me.”

“Oh, and by the way, could you send me some recipes on healthy summer lunches; there’s this new cute guy at the tennis club I need to impress…”

Kiwi and crab salad

6 kiwis
2 cans of crabmeat
grated rind of one lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
toasted sesame seeds
a few sprigs of chives
a few chervil leaves
a few crushed red pepercorns(optional)
salt and pepper

Cut the tops off the kiwis, remove the flesh with a spoon and dice finely. Turn the hollowed out kiwis upside down on toweling paper to drain.
Drain the crab meat and add to the diced kiwi. (Don’t use all the kiwi flesh if it seem too much)
Add the lemon juice, lemon rind, chopped herbs and toasted sesame seeds to the crab meat. Season to taste
Fill the kiwis with the crabfilling and decorate with a sprig of chervil and a sprinkling of crushed red peppercorns.

Serves 6

Alternative: serve the crab salad on a bed on mixed salad leaves or on slices of toasted baguettes.

This post was a mother and daughter effort. Our eldest visited for the week end from Toulouse, where she’s doing her last year in architecture. Sharing a love for art and camera and food, we worked in a team to do “cocolat chaud à notre façon”. A mere twenty two years ago, she was sitting feet and all on the kitchen counter, licking from the mixing bowl. Now she is as apt at living an adult life as she was then at licking a bowl. I enjoyed this experience with her, making our hot chocolate, setting up for the photo shoot, choosing the best shot and ending with sipping our chocolat chaud.

Chocolat chaud à notre façon(Hot chocolate our way)

Heat up a cup of milk per person.
Melt about 1 heaped tablespoon of cooking chocolate chips (70% cocoa) per cup, together with 2 tablespoons of water. Alternatively you can use 125 g of dark chocolate to 250 ml of milk.
Add the melted chocolate to the hot milk and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
Remove from the stove and whisk with a frother(or in a chocolatiére) until foamy.
Pour into cups and sprinkle with cocoa.
Serve with brown sugar lumps on the side.

Variations:

For a creamier version, replace some of the milk with cream.
Add mint leaves to the milk to infuse and remove before adding the chocolate. Serve, topped with a mint leave, dusted with icing sugar.
Add a cinnamon stick to the milk and infuse.
Add some orange peel to infuse with the milk and serve afterwards with sugared orange peel dipped in chocolate.